Mumbai reports 961 fresh cases

MUMBAI: Reporting below 1,000 Covid-19 cases in a single day for the first time since March 2, Mumbai on Tuesday recorded 961 fresh infections and 44 deaths due to the virus, taking the tally to 690,023 and the toll to 14,316. The testing numbers, however, were low. On Monday, Mumbai conducted 17,920 Covid-19 tests, with a daily positivity rate of 5.3%. There are now 31,790 active cases in Mumbai.

So far, Mumbai has conducted 5,934,165 tests, with an overall positivity rate of 11.8%. About 35% to 40% of the tests conducted per day are rapid antigen tests, which on an average have a lower positivity rate than RT-PCR tests.

On March 2, Mumbai reported 849 new cases, following which, the figures began to increase. According to experts and authorities, the second wave began around March 11. The highest number of cases reported in Mumbai so far was on April 4 (11,204 cases). However, in the past two weeks, the number of cases in the city has gone down steadily, and the positivity rate has also dropped to 6-8%, from the previous 18-20% reported in April and first week of May. Positivity rate is the percentage of tests that are positive.

Mumbai’s recovery rate is now 93% and the overall growth rate is now 0.27%, and the doubling rate has now gone up to 255 days. So far in May, Mumbai has reported 41,552 cases, as opposed to 164,713 infections in the same period in April.

About 59% of the active cases in the city are asymptomatic, 36% are symptomatic, and about 3% are critical cases.

Out of the 31,306 beds in Mumbai, 17,745 are available. A total of 384 ICU beds and 85 ventilator beds are vacant, according to information from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).